Tensions over Ulster's marching season are rising after a nationalist residents' group vowed to hold a counter-rally on 12 July in north Belfast, even if they are refused permission to do so.

The Greater Ardoyne Residents' Collective (Garc) plans to march between 7pm and 9pm, when Orangemen and loyalist supporters return from the main Twelfth demonstrations across Greater Belfast.

The Parades Commission, the body that adjudicates over parades in Northern Ireland, is due to rule on Garc's application on Friday. But a Garc spokesman, Martin Og Meehan, said the group would be making its opposition known regardless.

"We are more than determined to express our opposition to triumphalist loyalist parades," he said. "We are standing up for the civil rights of the Ardoyne residents. Residents have repeatedly over a number of years said that these loyalist parades are not welcome. We are asking for a march within our own community. It will not infringe on the loyalist community.

"We totally recognise and accept that the loyalist, unionist community have the right to express their rights and culture, however they should do so where these parades are welcome. It is the people who insist on these parades and forcing them through our area that are stoking up the tensions. We are just asking for what is rightfully ours."

Garc will meet other members of fringe republican groups to discuss its response to the loyalist feeder parade.

Last year, 80 police officers were injured during four days of rioting in Ardoyne, and this week a number of men were given jail sentences for their part in the disorder, including a Spanish student who was told he would serve four years in jail for attacking an officer.

The mounting tension in Ardoyne comes with violence flaring up in the Lurgan-Craigavon area over the past 24 hours. Vans have been hijacked and burned out, the Belfast to Dublin rail link temporarily blocked and shots fired at a police patrol. The trouble has been blamed on dissident republicans linked to the Continuity IRA.

Meanwhile, two senior members of the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin appeared in a Craigavon court on Thursday for organising an illegal parade in Lurgan in January. The Republican Sinn Féin president, Des Dalton, and the vice-president, Fergal Moore, were arrested in Lurgan on Wednesday night and faced charges in connection with an illegal march organised to support Continuity IRA prisoners in Maghaberry jail outside Belfast.